


When you notice it

by Trojie



Series: Pity [1]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-13
Updated: 2011-04-13
Packaged: 2017-10-18 01:17:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/183370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trojie/pseuds/Trojie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It isn't exactly a bolt from the blue, when Arthur realises he's in love with Eames.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When you notice it

It was four AM on a rainy Wednesday, and Eames had just hit a guy so hard in the mouth that he'd fallen backwards against a dumpster, and Arthur, waiting in the shadows with his pistol just in case this 'brawl' (an excuse for Eames to pickpocket a drunk and belligerent mark) got out of hand, was not mentally prepared for the way Eames looked back at him with his hands in another man's pockets.

There's nothing fair about attraction, nothing logical about desire, nothing efficient about love. Arthur isn't the automaton he pretends to be, but he's not an Austen heroine either. Falling inconveniently in love is more about the inconvenience than the love for him, right at this moment.

Right at this moment here in the rain with Eames flicking a grin at him and holding up a pocketbook, one that hopefully details the schedule of the brawler's boss (secretaries with Fight Club fantasies are convenient), Arthur wants to crook a finger and have the forger follow him back into the bar, wants to buy him expensive whiskey and then take him home. Maybe there could be dancing somewhere in-between bits of those things. He wants to drag his thumb over Eames's lip.

Wants to court him, wants to have him. Wants to love him.

Can't.

Eames plays at being friends with people, and he plays well, but he's a loner and a private person and while Arthur's pretty certain he can get Eames in bed (no, he knows he can get Eames in bed, he's good at getting people in bed), he's not sure he can get any more than that.

And he likes to play to win. If he can't have it all, he doesn't want any of it.

So he holsters his weapon and saunters down into the damp, dark alley, takes the pocketbook from Eames's hands, and says 'Good job, Mister Eames.'

But he means, _I love you_ , and from the look in Eames's eye and the pause before he nods, he's not sure Eames didn't read that from his lips anyway.


End file.
